What physically stops you from lifting heavier?
punkeson
Posts: 37 Member
Just curious to know what physically stops you from lifting heavier? I lift heavy three times a week and love being able to up my weights. I often read about feeling the burn or powering through lifts to make the last few reps. However I've noticed that if the weight really is too heavy for me, then I literally either can't shift it fom the start position, or I can move it but my body is weak and my form is bad. If it was just a case of lifting and ignoring a 'burning' sensation then I could manage that as it strikes me as more of a mental challenge?
I hope this makes sense - I love the challenge of moving up to the next size of weights and just wondered how everyone else's body lets them know that they don't have enough in them for the next rep?
I hope this makes sense - I love the challenge of moving up to the next size of weights and just wondered how everyone else's body lets them know that they don't have enough in them for the next rep?
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gravity
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Strength and power.0
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Halo0
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At some point your physiology is incapable of picking up more weight. Your muscles cannot produce the power required to move it. Simple as that. Has nothing to do with powering through a burning sensation. There are laws of physics that get in the way.0
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Gravity is the primary answer. However, form and other conditions can affect how much you can lift. When your form is good, you’re getting maximum leverage for the lift. Water and nutrition also affect your strength on a given day. Beyond those, there is a mental factor.
Diving a little deeper into your question, strength is not always linear. You may have weaker areas in your lift (sticking points). Many lifters will do limited range of motion in that weak area to push through those sticking points. Unless you’re lifting for competition, that is probably overkill.0 -
You cannot grow additional myocytes (muscle cells), the cells can only hypertrophy (get bigger). Cells can only get so large before they have too much internal size to function well/maintain membrane integrity, so your muscles can only get so strong before a limit is reached.0
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This may be different than what you're asking, but for me, it is always my shoulder muscles that prevent me from lifting heavier. For example, in trying to do bench press, whenever I get anywhere close to the weight I could do 6-8 reps of, small muscles in my shoulders feel like they are tearing and I get injured.
I am sure this is because I'm not doing it right, but I've tried to improve my form with light weights and get more knowledgeable folks to help me, but the same thing happens repeatedly whenever I up the weight. So, at this point I've given up on heavy lifts and do body weight --- instead of bench I do various kinds of pushups, including (fairly lame since I'm not that strong) one handed and weighted pushups. Not sure why, but for some reason I can do pushups, pullups and dips without injury.
This is also probably related to the fact that I'm 47 and have injured both shoulders repeatedly over the years skiing, doing MMA and probably lifting wrong.0 -
Alligator423 wrote: »You cannot grow additional myocytes (muscle cells), the cells can only hypertrophy (get bigger). Cells can only get so large before they have too much internal size to function well/maintain membrane integrity, so your muscles can only get so strong before a limit is reached.
I doubt she’s reached that level of muscle mass. While there is a size - strength relationship, strength gains don’t necessarily require hypertrophy. Also, hypertrophy doesn’t necessarily lead to more strength.0 -
For lower body and back work, my grip strength limits how heavy I can lift and how long I can lift for. I get around that by using straps/hooks for sets after my grip fails.
For chest and arms, some moves are limited by how much I can lift to get into position for the move (ie bench press, chest fly) - I can lift MUCH more for the move itself that what I can lift to get into the starting position. Other moves are limited by my confidence in my strength - I would probably go heavier if I had a spotter, but I don't, so my weight increases are smaller increments and less frequent.0 -
Alligator423 wrote: »You cannot grow additional myocytes (muscle cells), the cells can only hypertrophy (get bigger). Cells can only get so large before they have too much internal size to function well/maintain membrane integrity, so your muscles can only get so strong before a limit is reached.
There's a difference between sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which focuses more on increased muscle glycogen storage (size) and myofibrillar hypertrophy, which focuses more on the size of the fibers (strength).
The factors that limit our strength are:
-Neural drive (CNS)
-Secondary contractile messenger system
-Optimal actin and myosin contractile protein saturation
Generally if you reach a strength plateau you can continue to increase the size of the supporting muscles to increase strength. You can also increase the size of the muscles, which can allow for greater strength development.0 -
I don't know if this is really true (so someone can correct me if I'm wrong), but my thinking is that the amount of strength you can gain with your existing muscle mass is somewhat dependent on the amount of muscle you have to start with. In other words, as an example an untrained person who naturally has 14" biceps vs someone who has 12" biceps might be able to gain more strength with their existing muscle mass.0
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At some point your physiology is incapable of picking up more weight. Your muscles cannot produce the power required to move it. Simple as that. Has nothing to do with powering through a burning sensation. There are laws of physics that get in the way.
Yup...and when that happens, your only real option is FOODZ0 -
my grip typically is a limiting factor if i'm going heavy weight on something like a deadlift or am really pulling a heavy bent row.0
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For some people, the limitation is mental. They don't know what they are really capable of, they doubt themselves, or they simply don't try to push themselves beyond a certain point.
For others, it's physical. This can be weak secondary muscles, poor form, or simply insufficient strength.
Speaking personally, I battle both. Mentally I've come a long way, and every training cycle, every race, I learn a little more about myself. Physically, it's a process. There's always room to improve and I'm constantly trying to do so.
IMO, the whole thing is a function of evolution. Even if you push yourself to the absolute max this month, next month your max will be a little bit more, and will require additional progress to reach.0 -
When you hit a wall on a lift, the problem is one of the following (this is true 100% of the time):
Physical
Technical
Mental
Physical limitations are when one of the muscles used to execute the movement is not strong enough to lift the weight. This is actually the rarest reason someone isn't getting stronger.
Technical issues are the most common reason a person isn't getting stronger. Don't just "fix" your form, perfect it.
Mental issues are the hardest to fix. I have trained lifters who were convinced that they could not deadlift a bar with 4 plates on each side. So I loaded the bar with three plates, a quarter and 2 ten lb plates on each side, didn't tell them how much it was and bam, they deadlifted it without a sweat. Don't let yourself get in your own way.0 -
ForecasterJason wrote: »I don't know if this is really true (so someone can correct me if I'm wrong), but my thinking is that the amount of strength you can gain with your existing muscle mass is somewhat dependent on the amount of muscle you have to start with. In other words, as an example an untrained person who naturally has 14" biceps vs someone who has 12" biceps might be able to gain more strength with their existing muscle mass.
Generally speaking... a larger muscle has greater potential to produce more force, since there are more fibers to recruit from.0 -
A low grade illness. I missed all my target reps for squats yesterday.0
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foursirius wrote: »my grip typically is a limiting factor if i'm going heavy weight on something like a deadlift or am really pulling a heavy bent row.
Same here. I had a couple months off from deadlifting and it was losing some of my grip strength that prevented me from being able to lift my normal weight.
I have issues with tight hips and I have a bad knee. These contribute to me not being able to squat as heavy or as low as I would like to.
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Nothing, Squatting 400 for last set. Myron OP? Yea you mirin.
Do strong lift programme if wanna increase lifts0 -
Alligator423 wrote: »You cannot grow additional myocytes (muscle cells), the cells can only hypertrophy (get bigger). Cells can only get so large before they have too much internal size to function well/maintain membrane integrity, so your muscles can only get so strong before a limit is reached.
There's a difference between sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which focuses more on increased muscle glycogen storage (size) and myofibrillar hypertrophy, which focuses more on the size of the fibers (strength).
The factors that limit our strength are:
-Neural drive (CNS)
-Secondary contractile messenger system
-Optimal actin and myosin contractile protein saturation
Generally if you reach a strength plateau you can continue to increase the size of the supporting muscles to increase strength. You can also increase the size of the muscles, which can allow for greater strength development.When you hit a wall on a lift, the problem is one of the following (this is true 100% of the time):
Physical
Technical
Mental - Loftren
Those are two very good answers. For me personally I find that the mental aspect is the hardest factor to control.
1. Keep my head on good nutrition which fuels the physical aspect. If I can't keep this straight, the lifts fail.
2. Keeping other distractions out of my head during my training.
3. Block fear
For me if the mental is good, then everything else falls in-place. Physical limitations are there but with consistent work they can be over come, to a certain degree at least.0 -
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Sam_I_Am77 wrote: »
you mad cos you cant do half of that on your last set? You really think Id brag here? Lel. I know lot of individuals who can do 600+ out but I see em mirin too0 -
foursirius wrote: »my grip typically is a limiting factor if i'm going heavy weight on something like a deadlift or am really pulling a heavy bent row.
Same with me. I probably could lift heavier weights, especially when working with kettlebells, but my grip strength isn't quite there yet.
I'd also like to plead that I have small hands. (well, that excuse makes me feel better anyway).0 -
Sam_I_Am77 wrote: »
you mad cos you cant do half of that on your last set? You really think Id brag here? Lel. I know lot of individuals who can do 600+ out but I see em mirin too
I've seen you pop up on two threads now and am convince you're trolling, or seriously stunted.0 -
htimpaired wrote: »Sam_I_Am77 wrote: »
you mad cos you cant do half of that on your last set? You really think Id brag here? Lel. I know lot of individuals who can do 600+ out but I see em mirin too
I've seen you pop up on two threads now and am convince you're trolling, or seriously stunted.
Probably got too much protein in the brain or something. I have no idea what that guy is on about.
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htimpaired wrote: »Sam_I_Am77 wrote: »
you mad cos you cant do half of that on your last set? You really think Id brag here? Lel. I know lot of individuals who can do 600+ out but I see em mirin too
I've seen you pop up on two threads now and am convince you're trolling, or seriously stunted.
He's 20 years old and a Miscer from Bodybuilding.com. Not really a troll, just sort of sad.0 -
Sam_I_Am77 wrote: »
you mad cos you cant do half of that on your last set? You really think Id brag here? Lel. I know lot of individuals who can do 600+ out but I see em mirin too
Not at all, my squat is better than yours if you must know. I imagine my OHP and Bench are too, but nice try.
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Sam_I_Am77 wrote: »Sam_I_Am77 wrote: »
you mad cos you cant do half of that on your last set? You really think Id brag here? Lel. I know lot of individuals who can do 600+ out but I see em mirin too
Not at all, my squat is better than yours if you must know. I imagine my OHP and Bench are too, but nice try.
lel. Sure, Thars why no AVI. No thnx jefd0
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